Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant (22 April 1724-12 February 1804) was a German philosopher who was a major leader of German idealism.

Biography
Immanuel Kant was born in Koenigsberg, Prussia on 22 April 1724, and he was educated at the Collegium Fridericianum and the University of Koenigsberg. Kant was once a student of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and rationalism, and it would not be until he reached his middle years that he became an independent thinker. He believed in "transcendental idealism", believing that the mind shapes the world we perceive in space and time. He criticized some empirical views, but also criticized subjective idealism, saying that "I" cannot be referred to as a subject due to the spontaneity of the mind; "All knowledge through the senses is pure illusion." He believed in the difference between "things as they appear" (phenomena) and "things in themselves" (noumena), bbeyond limits of understanding. He also opposed John Locke's views that the mind was a blank slate, believing that minds constantly attempt to categorize knowledge, and that we are confined to our own consciousnesses. In 1781, he wrote Critique of Pure Reason, his most famous work. He sought to put an end to the struggle between the speculative theories of human existence with David Hume's skepticism, synthesizing rationalism and empiricism. He died in Koenigsberg in 1804.